This invention relates to a separator for a release valve, and more particularly to a separator for separating air from a liquid solution so that the total volume of the liquid solution is reduced and thereby a smaller release valve may be used.
Backflow release valves are well known and widely used to remove unwanted backflow of liquids carrying undesirable contaminants into a fluid supply. In a typical piping system, a plurality of check valves are used to prevent backflow. These check valves automatically close when a backflow condition occurs and prevent any backflow from reaching the fluid supply. However, these check valves may have a lag in closing such that some backflow fluid passes beyond the check valve to the supply side of the pipe, or the check valves could potentially malfunction allowing backflow to flow towards the fluid supply.
Backflow release valves are operable to sense when a backflow situation is occurring and then dump any backflow fluid within the supply lines to an external location. In this manner, the backflow cannot reach the water supply, thus avoiding any backflow contamination. Due to the relatively quick flow rate of contaminated water in a backflow situation, current release valves have to be able to dispense a large amount of contaminated water. If the release valve cannot dispense of a suitable amount of contaminated water in a quick manner, then the contaminated backflow may reach the supply side of the pipe. The relatively quick flow rate of contaminated water is typically in a largely turbulent flow and can result in significant air entrainment within the volume of contaminated water entering the backflow release valve. This requires using a relatively large backflow release valve to dispense of this air entrained contaminated water.
Accordingly, there exists a need to reduce the volume of air flow entering a release valve. There also exists a need to provide a release valve having a relatively small size.